Meet two of the County Derry families who star in ‘Rare Breed: a Farming Year’

Last Thursday night saw the first episode of ‘Rare Breed: a Farming Year’ air, depicting the ups and downs of farmer life.
Two families from County Derry featured on the opening episode and are set to continue to throughout the rest of the series.
For both families, the Diamonds of Garvagh and Kellys of Limavady, farming is a tradition and goes back generations.
Jonny Kelly, from Limavady, is an arable and livestock farmer.
“My grandfather and my dad both farmed before me. So I'm the third generation basically,” said Jonny.
“The show contacted me. I think they had my number from a farmer who was on the show the previous year but it was a surprise.”
Jonny accepted the offer to be part of the show directly after the phone call.
“I like challenges, it's something different. I'm not used to that. I'm not good at speaking in front of people," he continued.
“I like Rare Breed because it shows the public what the farming community is doing.
“For the first [episode] I was working with tractors, so I got to explain what I was doing. And the next couple of times, I was actually doing work on the farm facility. They were talking to me while I was operating tractors
“It was a wee bit stressful but because I was doing what I normally do, it was easy to talk about it. I always find it easy to talk about something you're passionate about, you know everything about. I did find it very interesting,” said the farmer.
While the last episode was filmed in September, Jonny forgot everything about the show going live on TV until his mother-in-law called him to remind him.
“I just forgot everything about it until last week when it was advertised on the television.
“My mother-in-law sent me a message. ‘I just seen you on TV’ she said and I answered ‘What for?’ and then she wrote, ‘Rare breed’. I was like, ‘Oh, yes, that's right’,” he laughed.
The second family from County Derry starring on the show are father and son duo Michael and Kile Diamond.

They run their farm as a family business while Kile also attends classes at Greenmount College.
“I was always interested in farming, it’s a way of life more than anything else. As far as I can remember we’ve been farming,” said Kile, who specialises in commercial sheep, pedigree Beltex ewes and Limousin cattle.
“The show rang me to see if I would do it. I honestly don’t know how they found out about me,” he continued.
“They asked over the phone what kind of farm we run. They just came one day and followed us.
“It was sort of strange at first but you sort of get used to it.”
For the producers of the show, they arrived at the right time as they got the chance to witness twin lambs being born.
'Rare Breed: A Farming Year' continues on UTV every Thursday at 8.30pm.